The Hundred Dresses

This semester I am in Children's Literature. In this class we have to read about seventy children's books through out the semester. All this to say tonight I read the first book I needed to read and summarize for the class, The Hundred Dresses. I picked up the book at Borders today when I was going to pick up Tuck Everlasting. It was a short book that was a Newbery Honor, met the criteria, and looked cute, so I picked it up. I didn't really know what to expect when I opened it up, but shortly after I started reading it, I became aware that it was a book about teasing. Most of the book if from a little girl's point of view who isn't really teasing but is standing by while her friend teases. The book was written in 1944 by Eleanor Estes, and it is beautifully illustrated in what I assume is watercolor pencil by Louis Slobodkin. The girl who was being teased ultimately moves away to a big city where their Polish name won't be made fun of, but it really isn't the journey of the girl being teased that we see. We see the sleepless nights of the girl that is not much better off financially and is scared that she might be the next butt of the joke, and so she doesn't step forward to tell her friend she is wrong. We see that everyone has talents and worth. We also see that sometimes thing will stick with us because we knew they were wrong and we can't take them back. For a children's book it sure does have a lot of truth to it. Am I standing by, while I know I can do something to stop what is happening that is wrong? Am I keeping my mouth shut so that I don't become the next butt of the joke? Am I seeing the worth and talents of even the people that annoy me? Talk about a heavy first book.